With chickpeas around, who needs chickens? (recipe)

21 Dec 2016 - 11:42

Joe Yonan | The Washington Post

Anything chicken can do, chickpeas can do better. At least I think so, but I am admittedly biased. I don't know if it's just the possibility for wordplay, but I am drawn to every recipe I have ever seen that uses the beans in place of the poultry in a classic, or at least well-known, treatment. I'm talking about kung pao chickpeas, butter chickpeas, chickpea a la king and the like.

An early favorite was chickpea salad. And why not? Garbanzo beans take well to the mashed-with-mayo technique, and if you spice up the mix with curry powder and add some sour, crunchy bits, all the better.

Jessica Prescott has an excellent version in her book "Vegan Goodness" (Hardie Grant Books, 2016). Prescott, creator of the Wholy Goodness blog, was inspired not by chicken salad but by her dad's curried egg sandwiches. And rather than mayo, she uses a ripe avocado (plus a little olive oil) as the fatty binder. Because I'm a pickle fanatic, especially when it comes to sandwiches, my favorite part is her use of baby dills as little punctuation marks.

I aimed to make four full-size sandwiches with the filling, but the best-looking rolls at the supermarket were minis, so sliders were born. In the midst of holiday-potluck season, it was a message from the universe that these were born to be party food, not just dinner.

Combine the chickpeas, avocado, oil and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Mash with a fork until well combined but still a little chunky. Stir in the red onion, pickles, parsley, curry powder, salt and pepper. Taste, and add more lemon, salt and/or pepper as needed.

To build the sandwiches, place a few baby spinach leaves on the bottom halves of the toasted rolls and top with the chickpea salad (about 1/2 cup each if the rolls are hamburger-bun-size and 1/4 cup if they're minis). Top with the remaining halves of the rolls.